~ Living the Dream

At Last

With the major projects resolved or completed, we jumped through a decent weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to the northern most island group in the Bahamas called the Abacos.

We left the inlet near Lake Worth, Florida Saturday afternoon about 4 PM and were in the Gulf Stream by 5. It wasn’t the smoothest ride we have ever had, but we made it across OK. With the strong flow from south to north, whenever there’s any wind with a northerly component (NW, N, NE) the swells build in the Gulf Stream to 10, 12, sometimes 15-18 ft, so we have to wait until the winds clock to the East or South. The NE winds died but the seas hadn’t quite lain down so we saw some significant northerly swells.

Our first Bahamian sunrise

Once we passed through the Stream after about 10 miles the seas lay down again. We reached the Little Bahamas Bank about midnight, where the water depth suddenly jumps from several hundred feet to 25 feet at around midnight. As we crossed on to the Bank the water smoothed out to a ripple, and because of the lack of wind we motored on through the next day to Spanish Cay (pronounced “Key”), where we docked in a small marina at about 4:30 Sunday afternoon. The Customs agent had gone home for the day but the marina said we could stay the night and clear in the following morning.

Sleep where you can, when you can

The next morning we completed the Customs paperwork, produced Spike’s health certificate for inspection, paid our fees for cruising and fishing permits, and checked out of the marina. Then we headed further into the Abacos islands to Green Turtle Cay (you’re following along with your maps, aren’t you?) and took a mooring for a day or two to explore the island and settle into the Bahamas mindset.

The weather isn’t exactly what you would call tropical. The Abacos are the same latitude as central Florida, which has been experiencing a colder winter (by Florida standards) than they’ve seen in years. Regardless, the northern Bahamas are notorious for cool winters until almost April.

Raising our Bahamas courtesy flag

But we’re here, and after enjoying the azure blue waters, the coral reefs and the local attractions for a while we will begin heading south through the islands on our way back to the Caribbean.

There are some significant weather fronts coming off of the US East Coast that we are watching while we look for a place to hide out from the winds.

So happy you are on your way. Enjoy the Bahamas for us. We will live vicariously through you both for a while. GSJ Island sold and so Mike is unemployed and we are homeless. We are staying here on STT with friends until we can wrap us our lives and fly back to the states (Dede too). We expect to be in FL the 1st week of March. Time to help out our parents for a while but we hope to be off to some new adventures between our more frequent visits with them. Perhaps I’ll get back to the Bearcruzer blog as well. Love you three. Fair winds and following seas! M & C.